Boxes and Drawers
by Missroxy87
Summary: Ross is moving Rachel's boxes from Joey's apartment and inside one of them he finds the well-known Ross's box that Rachel has kept all these years. When Rachel comes home, they decide to look at it together and this is a chance to have an insight of their feelings about a few events occured in their relationship.
1. Ross's Box

Hi people, this my second Friends fan fiction. I had this idea after watching the episode [ ** _6x25 The One With -The Proposal (Part II)_** ]. When I saw Rachel taking the napkin and put it in her pocket, I thought that maybe she wanted to keep it. And so I wanted to write something about it.

 **I'm not an English native speaker** and I usually make a lot of mistakes, so please forgive my typos and failures in the language. I hope you enjoy this! RT

* * *

Ross was bringing home one of the many boxes Rachel had prepared to have shipped to Paris. Fortunately, she had decided to have them sent only once she arrived in Paris and found a final arrangement, so the boxes had never been sent. In this way, the move from Joey's apartment to Ross's would have been even faster since everything was already packed.

Most of her clothes were in the baggage she had loaded on board of the plane that had left for Paris, so Rachel had contacted the airline to get it back and found out that it would take a few days. Anyway, Rachel had packed in those boxes several clothes and shoes belonging to hers and Emma.

Joey had offered to help his friend with the move, so he was following Ross with the last of the many boxes they had brought up and down from one building to another. It had not taken so many trips, but the effort had nevertheless been enough.

"Hey Joe, thanks for the help!"

"You're welcome!"

"Rachel disappeared at the right time, as usual." Ross noted ironically.

"Where is she, by the way?"

"She went to bring Emma to her mom, she thought that with all the chaos of moving this afternoon it would have been more convenient to leave her with her."

"Did you hear Monica and Chandler?"

Ross nodded, "Monica is in cloud 9, you have to hear her talking about the kids..."

"Yeah... I never thought Chandler would be a great father, but when I see him with Jack and Erica... It's like when I think of myself with Duck Jr. and Chick Jr."

Ross looked at his friend thinking about how naive he was at times, "Yes, that's just the same!" He commented. "Do you want a beer?"

"Maybe later, or I'll be late on set. See you tonight with Phoebe down at the Cafe?"

"Sure, thanks again!"

Joey exited the apartment and closed the door behind him.

Ross took a bottle of water from the fridge to drink, then he put it down on the table. Knowing that waiting for Rachel could be a wrong move - you never know if Rachel Greene is on time, Ross decided to start opening the boxes to sort the items. They had already made room in the wardrobes the day before and Rachel had already told him where she wanted to put her things in Ross's room and which ones were going to Emma's room.

The night Rachel had returned from the airport they had talked for a long time about their future and one of the main topics had been their cohabitation. Rachel had no doubt of wanting to come back to live with Ross to finally give Emma the family she deserved. Ross had asked her if she wanted to proceed step by step, if she preferred things to proceed slowly and if she wanted to settle down for some time in Emma's room. She had smiled at him and calmed him: she would not sleep in a bed if Ross wasn't there, from that moment on. She had made a final decision, she would not look back anymore, only forward.

Ross opened the first box, noticing that it contained mostly Emma's toys. He smiled to see that the orange dinosaur that the little girl did not like very much at first was actually inside it. By now Emma couldn't stay without it and she always carried it with her, much to her father's delight. Ross shuffled the games inside their container into Emma's playroom, then he folded the box carefully – in a way that would made his sister Monica very proud, then he opened the second box.

This one mostly contained Rachel's shoe boxes. Ross opened them and as Rachel had explained to him the day before, he put the shoes in the closet area they had planned to be her _shoe-paradise_. To save space, however, he took the shoe boxes and placed them near the front door of the apartment to throw them away.

At the end, just one shoebox was left. It was a blue-purple box, a little worn-out and certainly older than the others. When Ross opened it, he gasped. Only after opening it he _did_ recognize it. That was the box Rachel had shown him at the Thanksgiving in 1997, the year after they broke up, when he had scolded her and accused her of not having feelings.

At that moment he felt once again guilty of having done so. And he felt even more guilty when he noticed the front door opening and Rachel appearing with a huge smile on her lips.

"Hey Sweetie! Emma was very happy to stay with Grandma Greene. My mom said that maybe she will take her to see my father. Who knows, maybe having a common granddaughter will bring them together a little more…"

Noticing Ross's broken gaze, Rachel worried, "What's up?"

Ross pulled out the box and showed it to Rachel, making a gentle smile. Rachel inclined her head and nodded gently.

"You would have brought this to Paris?" he asked.

"You thought I didn't have it anymore?" she questioned him, a little surprised.

Ross shook his head, "No, it's just...After all these years... you can still amaze me."

Rachel smiled, satisfied, "Have you already looked at it?"

Ross shook his head again, "I just found it. I was starting to put away your shoes, and let's say it's quite a challenge!"

Rachel chuckled, "Do you want to look at it together?"

Ross made one of those smiles for which Rachel had fallen madly in love with him, one of those that made dimples emerge on his cheeks, one of those that made him look like a child.

The two sat down on the floor, both legs crossed. Rachel took the box in her hands and began to examine the contents, showing Ross the various objects it contained.

"Some things you already know, don't you?" She asked, recalling the fight they had that November day a few years earlier.

"Yeah." He simply answered her.

"This is the movie stub of that foreign film that you took me to see on our first date. Unfortunately, after almost ten years it's a bit faded... This is the eggshell from the first time you made me breakfast in bed."

Ross remembered that morning as if it was the day before, "I still remember Monica and Richard's face when they left their room and saw me in the kitchen preparing eggs and pancakes for you. She could not believe it!"

Rachel smiled, thinking about how things had changed radically, "She probably wanted to do the same for him."

"I actually cooked for everyone that morning, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe came to eat too. It was a Sunday morning."

Rachel smiled, showing him the last object Ross had already seen, "And this is the _bone of contention_..."

Ross chuckled, thinking about the investigation probably still going on at the Museum to look for that bone that had disappeared years before. "You were really crazy to take it. But I understand why you did it."

Rachel nodded, "I wanted a memory of that wonderful night."

Ross leaned over and kissed her tenderly, "So what else is there?" He asked, intrigued.

"Let's see..." Rachel continued, looking into the box. "This is the list of my pro that you had done to try to make me forgive you after the disaster of the first list..."

"Oh yeah...Now I remember you asked for it after we started dating. I always wondered why."

"I wanted to keep it. And I particularly love this 7th pro."

"What is it?" Ross asked, reading the paper out loud. " _The way you always befriended my sister in high school even if she was non popular_."

"It always reminds me that when we were younger you liked me not only because I was the pretty popular cheerleader, but also because I was something more.

You've always seen something more in me, Ross, like nobody else."

He smiled and caressed her cheek, because that was only the simple truth.

Rachel continued, smiling, "Uhm yes, this will please you very much. Remember this?"

Rachel handed Ross a white paper napkin. Ross took it and noticed that his name was written on it. It took him a moment to focus on it, then he understood. "You want to tell me that you kept the napkin that you pick to decide that I was your backup?"

Rachel nodded, "Of course, Ross. But I kept it because you've never been a _backup_ to me. That day, when I was talking to Phoebe, I never had any doubts about coming to ask you to be my possible backup. I knew very well that I could never end up with someone else but you, probably because I unconsciously still knew that I did not **want** to end up with someone else but you. So when we picked the napkins at the Café and I got Joey's one in my hands...It did not take me much to ask Phoebe to change hers with me. I don't know if any of this makes sense to you..."

Ross took her hand, "Of course it does, Rach. The fact that I had told Phoebe that I accepted her proposal to be her backup had been more like a… _goliardic_ promise made in friendship, it was never a serious matter. But when you came to ask me... I understood that there could be a whole bunch of other implications...and… What's that ?!" Ross asked, noticing a paper that read _Pizza Hut_.

Rachel smiled, "This, Mr. Geller, is the flyer we were given on the evening of our wedding dinner at _Pizza Hut_ in Las Vegas!"

Ross burst out laughing, "How did you get it?"

"I found it in my pocket back home. That's one of the reasons I remembered everything before you when we came back to New York."

"I can't believe you kept that too...in spite of everything I did to you by keeping our marriage a secret, I mean…how could you forgive me?"

"With a good dose... of patience... and margaritas."

Ross smiled, "You've always forgiven all my mistakes, Rach. You're the strongest woman I know."

She looked down, her memory for a moment pondered on much more painful memories than their divorce.

Ross lifted his hand and took her chin with his fingers, inviting her to look at him: "We're done being stupid, this is it?"

"This is it." she answered, nodding and kicking out of her mind all the bad thoughts.

Ross picked up a long-dried rose from the box, "Tell me about the flower."

Rachel smiled again, "Do you notice it's pink?" Ross nodded. "It's the one you gave me on Barry and Mindy's wedding day while I was singing _Copacabana_."

Ross chuckled, "Of all the flowers bouquets I gave you for birthdays, holidays and monthly anniversaries, why did you keep that one?"

Rachel shook her head dreamily, "Because you were there for me that day. You accompanied me during an embarrassing situation and you supported me in a difficult moment. I had to face my past to see if I had done the right thing. And when I sang in front of everyone, with you encouraging me…and then you got on the stage with me to sing…you gave me that flower...and I realized that running away from the wedding with Barry was the best choice I had done in my entire life."

Ross began to think how much he and Rachel were made for each other. Soon he would have the opportunity to prove it to her. But now he wanted to finish seeing what this box contained.

"What else do you have in there?" He asked her.

"Well... this is a video. We do not need to look at it because you already know it. It's the footage we recorded on the night of Emma's first birthday."

"The one for when she turns 18?" Ross asked.

Rachel nodded.

"How come you keep it here?"

"Because when we were able to record our message together at the end of the video... I felt for the first time in a veeeery long time that maybe we could sort things out between us. That night I was shattered for how the party had gone, and yet you managed to cheer me up as usual, especially saving the cake and turning it into a bunny. "

"Why, penis-shaped was not good for a one-year-old girl's birthday?" Ross stated ironically.

"In your message for Emma you told her a beautiful thing: you promised her that wherever her parents would be when she turned 18, they would be together to celebrate with her that day. Then you looked at me, you took my hand and kissed it."

Ross blushed slightly, he did not remember making such an obvious gesture before getting back together with Rachel. "Did I really do that?"

Rachel nodded. "You did."

"Well, I think Emma will wonder how foolish we were not to get back together before."

With that said, Ross took her hand and kissed it again. This time it was Rachel's turn to blush slightly.

"Er...this is a photograph that I'm very fond of. I took it to the hospital when Emma was born. Carol and Susan had come to visit us with Ben."

The picture portrayed Ross with Emma in his arms and near him, Ben was looking and smiling at his little sister. The picture had been taken by Rachel.

At that moment, Ross's heart started to beat faster. He couldn't understand the reason why, of so many pictures, Rachel was keeping in that box a photo in which there was not only Emma, but also Ben.

"You know how much I loved Ben when he was a little boy. And you know how much I still care about him. I believe that in my heart I always thought that, being the two of us in some way destined to be together, Ben is somehow destined to be a part of my life. That's why I always wanted him to like me. And this picture reminds me that Emma will always have an older brother who will take care of her, because he is the son of two wonderful mothers and a fantastic father."

"Rach…" Ross was about to cry.

"Oh, wait to cry, I've kept the best for last!"

Ross looked at the last object. It was a plane ticket from New York to London dated May 7, 1998.

The date of his marriage to Emily.

It was the ticket Rachel had bought to get to London.

Ross looked at the ticket in shock, "Why should this be the best? Rachel, why did you keep this ticket? That was one of the worst days of our lives."

"I know."

"I almost lost you that day."

"I know." She nodded.

"You came to London to tell me you loved me and you didn't."

"I did not."

"So why keeping this memory? I- I-… I don't understand?!"

Rachel took his hands in his, "Because that day, when I came to the church and I saw you with Emily, I thought it was over, Ross. I loved you, I've always loved you so much that I knew I wanted to see you happy, even at the cost of letting you go. And so I didn't have the courage to confess my feelings before the ceremony. Do you remember what I told you? "

Ross nodded, "Congratulations."

"Yeah... If I could go back, do you think I'd change something? No. Because you'd hate me, Ross. You would have accused me of wanting to ruin your life whenever you had the opportunity to move on. Like I did with Julie, and with Bonnie..."

"No, no, no..." Ross interrupted her. "Rachel, I would never have done it! If you had told me that you loved me, I would have interrupted that madness of marriage and... "

"Ross...honey... but you did."

Ross looked at her, trying to figure out what she was trying to say.

" _I, Ross... take thee, Rachel_."

Ross smiled, "Are you saying that even if you didn't confess your feelings, it's as if you actually had done it?"

Rachel giggled, "I'm saying that I keep that ticket for one reason: your marriage to Emily was the only moment of my life that I was really afraid of losing you. But when

I heard you saying my name at the altar, I realized that there was still hope for us. It was one of the biggest thrills of my life!"

"Rachel...you know why I said your name that day, don't you?"

"No, you never told me. You always said it meant nothing."

Ross shook his head, "Crap. Truth is, after seeing you and hugging you, I began to think only one thing. It was like a fixed nail in my brain. _I'm marrying the wrong woman_. I saw you sitting in the audience and wondered what you were thinking. And when the wedding march began and Emily walked down the aisle, I entered like in a trance. For me there was no Emily in front of me, it was you. I no longer heard the words of the minister, I had only my private version of what was happening in my head. And in my vision, I was getting married to you, not to Emily. Saying your name was like a…catharsis."

"And then you heard people murmuring, you woke up and saw Emily in front of you!"

"God, talking about embarrassment..." Ross chuckled, "Forgive me Rachel, I should have interrupted the wedding at that moment. Or at least I should have told you the truth that day at Central Perk. I should have told you that I loved you too. But then I was so worried about the idea of my second divorce that I didn't know where to bump my head, I..."

Rachel took his face in her hands, "No more messing around, right?"

"And I'm never letting you go again."

They both repeated the words they had said on the evening of Rachel's return from the airport.

They kissed passionately, like they had done that night. They stayed for a few seconds with their foreheads leaning against each other.

"What did I do to deserve you?" He asked.

"Keep wondering, Dr. Geller." She answered, joking.

"I didn't think it would come a day when I could have loved you more than when you gave birth to Emma, but today, after seeing this box, I think you've crossed the limit of how much possibly I've ever loved you before, Rach."

"And this is the most beautiful thing you've ever told me." She replied, looking at him with her beautiful blue eyes.

"I want to give you a piece of mine too. I know maybe you don't believe this, but... I have some kind of _Rachel's box_ too. But mine is a drawer. Do you want to see it?"

"Need to ask?"

* * *

 _Author's note: In Ch. 2: Rachel's Drawer ;)_


	2. Rachel's Drawer

This is the second and last chapter of the story. I hope you enjoy. Just so you know: I'm a hopeless Roschel shipper.I think these two deserve romance and happiness.

* * *

Ross went with Rachel into the bedroom and asked her to sit down on what in the last few days had become _their_ bed. The drawer Ross was talking about was the one of the bedside table near Rachel.

"How come a drawer, Ross? Weren't you afraid that some of your girlfriends would open it to browse inside?" She asked him.

"The only woman who ever lived in this apartment was you. As for the others...those relationships have never been serious enough for those girlfriends to have the right to browse in my closets or in my bedside tables."

"You kept it locked?" She asked, a knowing smile on her face.

"A little bit, yes." he replied, chuckling.

Ross opened the drawer and, to speed up their search, he pulled it out from the bedside table and placed it on the bed between him and Rachel.

The first thing that Rachel noticed were two flight tickets recently placed on top of all the items. Those were the tickets that Ross had bought a few nights before.The first one was a flight from New York JFK to Madrid.

"I needed an international ticket to get access to the International Departures Terminal, but since I had to buy two tickets, one for me and one for Pheebs, I asked for the cheapest they had!"

Rachel smiled, taking the other one. This ticket was from New York Newark to Rome, and the flight was due to take off at the time Rachel was getting on the plane again after the whole _philange_ chaos.

"With the last minute fare, this must have cost you an arm and a leg."

"And always for two!" Ross pointed out.

"Why didn't you return them when I did not get off the plane?" Rachel asked him, with a hint of regret.

He shrugged, "I was too upset to think of anything at that moment. The only thing I had in mind was you, flying towards your future in Paris without me."

"I'm so sorry, Sweetie…it must have been an hour of hell coming back home..."

"Worsened by Phoebe who was singing her masterpieces to try and cheer me up!"

Rachel chuckled, "I really don't know what we would have done without her."

"She was our first supporter from the very beginning. She's the one who came up with that whole _lobsters_ thing. And the...the other night she and Joey were the ones who convinced me to chase you to the airport...Well, we risked our lives inside her _death cab_ a couple of times, but it was totally worth it!"

"I will never thank her enough for calling me on the plane and inventing that absurd story about the _left philange_."

Ross burst out laughing.

"How many books you have in here! Always said you're the smart one between us…" Rachel told him.

"Actually…these are all about you."

Rachel picked up the first one. It was a paperback copy of _The big book of childrens' names_. She opened it and skimmed through a few pages, noticing that Ross had highlighted some names, including _Emily_.

"Obviously I did not know at the time that I would meet a woman named Emily and that I would marry her..." Ross explained, a little embarrassed.

Rachel also saw that most recently Ross had highlighted the name _Emma_ , and next to it he had drawn a little heart and had written their daughter's date of birth.

"Do you keep it as a memory of the past or as a possibility for the future?" She asked curiously.

"Both, I guess," he replied. "It reminds me of the first time we told each other _I love you_...and it makes me think that I would like Emma to have a younger brother or sister, in the future."

"Really?" Rachel asked, smiling.

"More than anything else."

Placing the book on the bed, Rachel noticed that Ross had two more books in the drawer. The first was a version with nineteenth-century drawings of _Little Women_.

"Since I've known you, I've never lived in an apartment without having at least one copy of this. I know how much you love it and how much you like to read it from time to time."

"And this?" Rachel laughed, taking _Be Your Own Windkeeper_.

"Well, you were so fascinated by it that I bought a copy and I read it too! What could I do?"

"Honey, you really read it?" She asked, approaching Ross and kissing him tenderly.

Ross and Rachel seemed to be back in time. They looked like eight years before, when they were two young lovers who had been dating for a few months and could not stay away from each other for too long.

"You accused me of _not letting you blow_ , I had to understand what you were talking about..." he chuckled.

"Ok, enough with the culture. What's this?"

"Oh, it's the receipt of when I rent that uniform from the JAG."

Rachel looked at him, intrigued. "Is the place where you got it still open?"

"Of course, I went there also that Christmas when I rent the armadillo costume for Ben!"

Rachel shook her head, sensing that Ross had not figured out what she meant.

"Oh..." he whispered then, moving a lock of hair from her forehead. "Only if you promise to dress up again as Princess Leia..."

"Deal." she answered.

Ross realized that some of the saddest memories were still inside the drawer.

"This...is the letter you wrote to me while we were in Montauk."

"The 18-pages-front-and-back-letter on which you fell asleep?" She asked, all in one breath.

"Yep."

Rachel shook her head, "I didn't think you kept it, after all it's such a mess full of grammar mistakes."

Ross smiled, appreciating her joke, "I kept it as a warning. Over the years, whether you believe it or not, I've read it often. The last time I happened to read it after we were together to visit your father the day he had the heart attack."

"Really?"

"Yes...remember what you said to me after we talked about our…situation?"

"That with us... it was never off the table."

Ros nodded, "That night I got home and I kept thinking about us. I read this letter from top to bottom trying to figure out how we'd ended up like this for the past seven years. And you know what? I just could not get a reason. Finally I realized that my egoism and my pride had ruined our relationship and dragged us to the end. If it was over among us it was mostly because of my jealousy, even before the break. What you said in that letter was all true. And back then, I didn't have enough maturity to accept it. If only I had, we would have been back together much earlier and I would have saved us many years of sorrow and suffering, Rach. As well as two divorces for me, and one for you!"

Rachel was on the verge of tears, but this last statement made her laugh.

"Ross... it wasn't just your fault... It's true, you had a big part of guilt, but I wasn't a perfect girlfriend either. I should have understood your insecurities. You had a failed marriage behind you, your wife betrayed you. When we think of Carol we often focus on the fact that she is a lesbian and we forget that she betrayed you with another woman. Now I understand that you felt insecure about all those changes that were happening to me. It was not fair of me to ask you to take full responsibility for everything that happened between us."

Ross took her hand and rubbed it, "Here you are again."

"What?"

"You amaze me. The strongest woman I know."

Rachel smiled and sighed, "I see you too have something floral in there!"

"Oh, it's mistletoe. Our first - and only - Christmas as a couple."

"That year Monica and Joey filled the apartment with old Christmas trees for Phoebe?"

"Yeah...remember that I hung this in your room, so every time we passed under it you had to kiss me?"

"Yeah, as if I didn't kiss you enough already!" She replied, amused.

"Let's see what else we've got here... oh yes, you have a disc, I have a VHS...remember this?"

"Is that the one of the night we conceived Emma?" She asked, smiling.

"Exactly. Maybe that wasn't our most beautiful night together, because we were not sober enough to remember it in detail. But it was certainly the most extraordinary and the most important evening of my life."

"Mine too, Ross." she replied, thinking of her child.

"Instead, talking about photos... I also have one of you and Emma at the hospital. I took this in the room just before the others came in to congratulate you."

Rachel looked at the picture and noticed her dreamy gaze as she watched her newborn baby.

"You were so beautiful, Rachel...I've never seen you as happy as when you were holding Emma in your arms for the first time..."

"I couldn't believe how lucky we were, Ross...she was so beautiful, healthy and perfect. And she was _ours_. Mine and yours."

"She's growing so fast..." Ross whispered. "And she looks more and more like you each passing day."

"Thank God she has your nose, though!"Ross laughed.

"Speaking of soul mates, I have something about the marriage of Barry and Mindy, too!"

"The invitation!"

"Yeah, I kept it. _Rachel Greene 1_."

"You were my plus one...so sweet!" she replied, giving him a kiss.

"I also remember that day as a huge step in our relationship. When I saw you so convinced in front of all those people you had left behind, I realized how lucky I was. You had left all that wealth and all your past to start a new life. And you were doing it with me. What could I ask more?"

"Me showing my ass in front of everyone?" She replied, laughing. "But you don't have anything to remember Las Vegas?" She asked, intrigued by the absence of objects related to their brief marriage.

"I left the best for last, just like you!"

Ross picked up the flight ticket they had taken from New York to Las Vegas and handed it to Rachel.

"Must say, many of our memories are based on flights and runnings to the airport, aren't they?" She asked, amused.

"Totally, and we didn't even mention the time you ended up in Greece alone..."

Rachel looked at him annoyed, so Ross chose that moment to make her further angry. He pulled out a black pen from the drawer and Rachel immediately recognized it.

"Oh my God, I can't believe you kept it!"

"I'm not sure if it still works after five years, but I could not get rid of it!"

It was the indelible marker with which Ross had painted a mustache and beard on Rachel's face during the flight to Las Vegas.

"You know...if you had not done this nonsense, maybe we would have never got drunk and we would have never got married..."

"I know. That's why I kept the marker." He explained tenderly. "And this is the payment receipt for our hotel rooms. It's funny to think that we only used one, actually. Look at the bill for the one we slept in."

"2000 dollars?!" Rachel cried.

"Remember to have abused of the mini-bar that night, don't you?" He asked, laughing.

"I remember throwing Macadamia nuts everywhere and taking out all the bottles of alcohol that were in that room, but I didn't think we'd spent so much!" She replied, amused.

"I never dared to tell you, after all I was keeping our marriage a secret..."

"Sounds fair to me." she said, nodding in satisfaction.

"And these...are the documents of our divorce." Ross concluded, taking a few folded papers.

Rachel winced as she saw them. She didn't keep her copy in her Ross's box because it wasn't a happy memory that she wanted to link to her relationship with him. After all, those papers had ratified the end of their wedding, even if it had been a result of a drunken mistake.

"You left the most painful part for last, too." She whispered.

"You're wondering why I keep them here, aren't you?" He asked.

She nodded.

"The day I made you sign them... was the moment I almost confessed that I was still in love with you."

"I had guessed it, Ross..." she answered.

"Really?"

"Yeah." She admitted.

"I keep these documents in here because that day I realized that even if we were divorcing then, I would never stop hoping for a future with you."

"That's also what you told me after Jill kissed you!"

"Oh my God!" Ross put his hands over his eyes, "Did that happen too, really? We really are an odd couple...we have always had an absurd timing in our life. Sometimes it was you, telling me that you loved me and I wouldn't answer the same because I was married with somebody else. At other times, the opposite happened. And if it wasn't us, there were other people involved, like Paolo, Julie, Bonnie, Mona, Gavin, Charlie or..."

"Joey."

Ross frowned and started looking down.

"Someone had to mention him sooner or later. We have not talked about it yet, Ross. It's the only thing we've never talked about since I came back."

"Rach... do you think it's wise?"

"I think so. I promise you won't regret it. Shall I start?" She asked.

Ross nodded, a bit worried.

"I can't deny that I had feelings for Joey. It's true, there was a period a year ago when I felt a deep attraction for him. Everything began because we lived together and I happened to know better his tender and loving side. But the truth is that I didn't fall in love with him, but rather with Dr. Drake Ramoray after seeing Joey play his parts in the _Days of our lives_. So it began this way, by chance."

Ross listened to her, trying to accept what she was saying.

"You and I were very detached at that time. You were in total awe for Charlie and we had just had that disastrous argument about Gavin and that night I went out with Phoebe and that guy had called home leaving a message for me...I think the fact of knowing that Joey was already feeling something for me pushed me towards his direction. I felt lonely and vulnerable and I felt this…affection for him."

Ross nodded, trying to remind himself that Rachel was talking about a distant past. Rachel took his hand and tenderly stroked it, inviting him to ask her questions.

"Were you in love with him?"

"No, Ross."

"How can you be sure?"

"Monica never told you why it didn't work out between Joey and me?"

"We never talked about it, it's a taboo subject for all of us, they know how hard it is for me to even think about it."

"Weren't you fiiiine about it?" Rachel mocked him.

Ross sighed, inviting her to go on with her tale.

"Well...the night of our first date, Joey and I could not... go any further. I mean, we kissed, yes. But as soon as he tried to do anything else...I reacted so badly and I rejected him."

"What do you mean by _badly_?"

"I slapped him. Really hard."

Ross smiled for the first time in the last few minutes. "And to think I was complaining about you laughing at me when I tried to touch your butt on our first date!"

"Well, Joey did worse than me: he could not undo my bra."

"Joey? Joey Tribbiani who opens bras with his eyes?" Ross asked incredulously.

"Him! I tried to ask him if, on some level, he did not want to take it off, but according to him he does not have that level."

"Classic Joey." Ross replied amused.

"Talking to Monica, she tried to convince me that maybe what was happening to me was similar to what happened with you on our first date, my usual _first-appointment-nervousness_. I tried to convince myself too, so Joey and I had a second date. But it went even worse than the first."

"What happened?"

"We kept feeling that the things we did were... _wrong_. That we were too much friends to do them."

"Really?"

"That night, everything I had ever felt for Joey...the attraction, the passion, the tenderness...it was all gone. It was enough for me to look him in the eyes. And you know what I kept thinking about?"

"What?" Ross asked, this time hopefully.

"About **our** second date."

"Oh, Rach..."

"Of course, our first date ended in an extravagant way. I kept laughing because I was nervous and excited for the big step we were taking. But that evening at the Planetarium, with the stars and the music and the two of us alone...I've never felt so much passion for someone in my life, Ross. And the more I sat there on the couch with Joey, the more I realized that it had been madness to try and make fun of myself like that."

"And how did he take it? Do you reckon he really thinks the same?"

"Yep. Joey understood too that unfortunately we are not made to be together and from that moment every feeling that he had felt for me was gone. Of course, he hadn't seen that coming. But life doesn't always go as we expect. We had an opportunity and we both realized that it was not what we really wanted or needed. Do you know what he told me the next morning when we woke up and you brought Emma after breakfast?"

"You mean after you made fun of me for five minutes for my tan and I went away slamming the door?" He replied, remembering the total _fiasco_ of his visits to the spray-on tan places.

Rachel chuckled, "Exactly. Joey looked at me and said, _Now get him back_. Then he gave me a pat on the shoulder and went to work."

Ross looked at her in amazement. He really needed to talk to Joey about this, one day.

"I swear, Ross. It was like he knew even before me. And you were still with Charlie, at the time."

"I can't believe this..."

"Are you happy to have talked about this, now?"

"Yes, Rach. Thank you for telling me all this..." he said, kissing her tenderly.

At that point, Ross had a brillant idea and took the last object still hidden in the drawer. It was a small dark case and Rachel immediately recognized it.

"Your grandmother's engagement ring."

"I'm not particularly fond of my grandmother's rings. I used her wedding ring in London with Emily and she sent it back after the divorce. And this, the engagement ring...well, we know what happened after the birth of Emma."

"Ross, why you wanna hurt yourself? Why do you keep it here?"

"Because I wish that luck would start turning in my favor one day and I would like this ring to finally serve its purpose. I would finally like to be able to use it to ask you a question I should have asked you years ago."

Rachel felt her mouth dry. She opened the case and looked at the ring again. It was just as beautiful as she remembered it.

"Why don't you do it?" She asked, too intent on looking at the ring to see that Ross had stood up from the bed.

"Who's saying I'm not doing it?" He replied, kneeling in front of her.

"Oh my God..." Rachel murmured.

Ross took a few seconds to ponder his next words very carefully.

"Rach...I know we're not in a room full of lilies and there's no background music or even the stars as I once promised you. Technically it's not even a surprise proposal since I already spoiled it."

Rachel smiled.

"But I can't imagine a better time to ask you to become my wife. Please, marry me, again."

Rachel chuckled, but she was starting to cry.

"I know that maybe you think it's early, but it's not the experience of living together that we lack, neither love, nor the desire to be finally together as a family. We'll wait as long as you want, and we'll do things like you've always wanted them. We'll invite Stevie Wonder and we'll have your veil lace made by Belgium nuns who will go blind, if that's what you want."

Rachel chuckled again, with tears of joy streaming down her face.

"Marry me."

Ross repeated.

Rachel sat on the floor in front of him and took his face in her hands.

"Yes, Ross."

The two kissed with passion. Rachel leaned her hands behind Ross's nape, he held his hands on her arms that he so venerated.

When they pulled away, Ross took the ring and slipped it on Rachel's finger, and she looked at it with tears that kept falling from her eyes.

"I'm so glad you got off that plane Rachel..." he whispered, hugging her again. "I love you."

"And I'm grateful that there were no _philanges_ on the plane, Ross." She replied, smiling while holding him tight. "I love you, too."

* * *

Well this is over, I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
